Twitter Accused Of Misrepresenting Fake Account Numbers ‘To Drive Up Revenue’

On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into bot accounts on Twitter. He has accused the platform of "misrepresenting how many accounts are fake to drive up" revenue.

The Texas investigation involves the defrauding of "consumers and businesses" on Twitter. While Twitter claims that "fewer than 5% of all users are bots," Paxton estimates that the percentage is much higher. He estimates bots make up "as much as 20% or more" of the social media platform's users.

“Bot accounts can not only reduce the quality of users’ experience on the platform but may also inflate the value of the company and the costs of doing business with it,” a press release on the matter reads.

Paxton claims that Twitter's lack of transparency about these fake accounts violates the "Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act." Specifically, the AG issued a Civil Investigative Demand (CID), which requires Twitter to turn over documents. The documents must detail how Twitter "calculates and manages user data and how these numbers relate to Twitter's advertising businesses."

Twitter must respond to Paxton's demand by June 27.

"Texans rely on Twitter’s public statements that nearly all its users are real people. It matters not only for regular Twitter users but also Texas businesses and advertisers who use Twitter for their livelihoods," Paxton said in a statement.

"If Twitter is misrepresenting how many accounts are fake to drive up their revenue, I have a duty to protect Texans," he added.

The announcement comes as Tesla CEO and Space X founder Elon Musk continues to raise concerns about the bots on the platform. On Monday, Musk, who is in the process of buying Twitter for $44 billion, complained about the site's lack of transparency regarding fake accounts and threatened to withdraw his offer until the company provides that information.